Review: TouellSkouarn Blokañ
„A ring modulator ... hm, yes, I‘ll have a look at it when the time comes. What?! A ring modulator with tubes?! Oh, cool, give it to me!“Okay, tubes don‘t necessarily make good sound or every module a piece of gold, but they do have their appeal. We were all the more curious to see what the Blokañ could do in terms of sound.
The module offers one input and one output in mono as well as an internal carrier VCO with sawtooth waveform. The VCO can be played tonally via CV and tapped separately. If you want, you can use external signals as a carrier. It‘s worth mentioning that the tubes are compatible to the models 6AL5, EB91 and EAA91; furthermore, this module needs quite a bit of power: At 5 volts, the consumption is around 600 mA, at 12 volts around 18 mA. So you should check your rack for sufficient resources before buying.
What does this module do?
So much for the technical part ... let‘s get straight to the sound and musical benefits: Ring Modulators are specialists for metallic sounds, but also typical „ayayay“sounds (Dubstep says hello), the Carrier is modulated by a fast LFO. If you use an envelope for modulation instead, laser-like zaps are created. With slow or low-frequency carriers, the module turns into a kind of tremolo effect. The overall character could be cautiously described as rough to garish which, in this case, is further enhanced by the tubes.
Because of its atonal output, a Ring Modulator is most often used as an effect for drums or drones and textures that you want to make move or add metallic sound to. In most cases, higher frequency sounds will benefit more than lows or subs; however, when used delicately, low-frequency carriers can make beats and basses more brutal or rhythmically wobbly (remotely comparable to filter sweeps or even tremolo). Techno producers will be happy about pseudo-metallic percussion; ambient musicians are happier about permanently varying atmospheres.
What‘s different with the Blokañ?
With the Blokañ, however, some bonuses are added that owe their thanks to the audio input and the tube. At the least, when sources other than oscillators are used as carriers, the Ring Modulator breaks out of its familiar paths. Particularly when feeding drum loops or sequencers of any kind as carriers, unheard and extremely appealing sounds emerge, which are a real goldmine - especially for the above mentioned Techno producers. Some patience and experimentation is required, however, because the results are difficult to predict. As such, there are more Happy Accidents. However, usable sounds are never long in coming, it just goes sonically mostly in a different direction than expected.
Even for guitars
Not quite as obvious is the fact that the module is also great as a guitar effect. On the one hand, acoustic guitars become pleasantly thick due to the tube; on the other hand, unusual sounds can be elicited from the instrument. Another worthwhile method is to mix the effect with the original or to use the Ring Modulator on reverb tails and delay echoes to get the otherwise static sounds moving. Depending on the carrier selected, also rhythmically.
And now for the tubes
The second big advantage of the Blokañ is, of course, its tubes: Thanks to the tubes, this module not only sounds more powerful and a bit „warmer“than other Ring Modulators, but they can also be used without modulation to fatten up the input signal...just like that. Compared to modules from Metasonix or ADDAC, the tubes are clearly less aggressive, but deliver a pleasantly smooth output. So, if you want to spice up your beats in between ... the Blokañ will do the trick. By the way, you can find a demo video in the magazine downloads.
Verdict
With or without tubes, for producers with a penchant for Techno, cool sounds and drones, the Blokañ is pretty much a no-brainer. Not only synthetic, but also traditional instruments benefit from the sound in two ways. If you want to go beyond the standard sounds of a Ring Modulator, however, some time and dedication is required to explore the options and find suitable combinations of sources and modulators that will take you further musically. This module definitely rewards the effort, it just needs to be understood first. ⸬